Arbaminch Water Technology Institute (AWTI), Arbaminch, Ethiopia
This paper presents the past and present activities and contributions of the Arbaminch Water Technology Institute (AWTI) towards water resources development capacity building, particularly in human resources development and research. The crucial bottlenecks for inadequate undertakings in water resources research in Ethiopia are identified as insufficient institutional set-up, inadequate skilled human resources, and insufficient finance and facilities. Approaches such as human resources capacity building combined with research-oriented teaching as well as sufficient emphasis for water resources research are the key issues for the way forward. Furthermore, it is emphasised that a water research institute addressing various sub-sector of water needs to be established.
The Arbaminch Water Technology Institute (AWTI) was established in 1986 with the general objective of promoting the advancement of water resources development of the country.
Among the many specific objectives, the main ones are:
The future objectives and missions of the Institute as a full-fledged University (i.e. Arbaminch University (AMU), which is under articulation), include:
The AWTI contribution in capacity building
Although the Institute in future develops to a University level, it will continue and retain the unique set-up in eastern Africa as a water technology Institute. Recently (since 2001) the Institute has opened further water related programmes in Meteorology in BSc degree and advanced diploma, and in Hydraulic/Hydropower and Irrigation Engineering in postgraduate programmes.Since its establishment, the Institute has trained substantial number of professionals and skilled manpower, which would serve the water sector and conducted a number of research projects. The alumni have found wide acceptance within the country and abroad. Table 1 shows the achievements in the number of graduates who are trained at AWTI to date, which shows a total of 1371 engineers and aid engineers of which over 95% are related to the water sector development. Furthermore, there are over 1100 admitted students in the water related fields at AWTI.
Table 1. Number of students, by discipline, graduated from the Arbaminch Water Technology Institute (AWTI).In addition AWTI has contributed significantly in training water and related technicians serving in the country. In this regard, in about 22 short-term courses leading to certificates training and refresher programmes, about 1285 people are trained from three to nine months period.
The water resources research challenges in Ethiopia
The major drawbacks
Water resources research in Ethiopia is not adequately addressed, although there is tremendous need for it. For sustainable water resources usage and exploitation, research is a vital tool. The basic necessities and preconditions are not set for water resources research to be effectively conducted for meaningful contribution in the sector. Among the necessary requirements are: institutional capacity, financial, human resources and facilities.
Institutional arrangement
Since its establishment, the Institute has trained substantial number of professionals and skilled manpower, which would serve the water sector and conducted a number of research projects. The alumni have found wide acceptance within the country and abroad. Table 1 shows the achievements in the number of graduates who are trained at AWTI to date, which shows a total of 1371 engineers and aid engineers of which over 95% are related to the water sector development. Furthermore, there are over 1100 admitted students in the water related fields at AWTI.
Table 1. Number of students, by discipline, graduated from the Arbaminch Water Technology Institute (AWTI).| Field of study | Period since first graduation | No. of graduates |
| Degree | ||
| Hydraulic Engineering | 1991–1995, 1998–2001 | 231 |
| Irrigation Engineering | 1991–1995, 1998–2001 | 179 |
| Sanitary Engineering | 1992–1995 | 65 |
| Water Resources Engineering | 1996–1998 | 106 |
| Civil Engineering | 2001 | 39 |
| Electrical Engineering | 2001 | 17 |
| Mechanical Engineering | 2001 | 20 |
| Total | 657 | |
| Advanced diploma | ||
| Irrigation and Drainage | 41 | |
| Water Supply and Sewerage | 165 | |
| Hydraulic Engineering | 156 | |
| Irrigation Engineering | 47 | |
| Sanitary Engineering | 75 | |
| Engineering | 26 | |
| Civil Engineering | 2001 | 27 |
| Building Technology | 2001 | 41 |
| Total | 578 | |
| Diploma | ||
| Hydrology Technician | 1988–1990 | 52 |
| Water Laboratory Technician | 1988–1990 | 39 |
| Soil Laboratory Technician | 1988–1990 | 45 |
| Total | 136 | |
| Grand Total | 1371 |
In addition AWTI has contributed significantly in training water and related technicians serving in the country. In this regard, in about 22 short-term courses leading to certificates training and refresher programmes, about 1285 people are trained from three to nine months period.
Water resources research in Ethiopia is not adequately addressed, although there is tremendous need for it. For sustainable water resources usage and exploitation, research is a vital tool. The basic necessities and preconditions are not set for water resources research to be effectively conducted for meaningful contribution in the sector. Among the necessary requirements are: institutional capacity, financial, human resources and facilities.
Water resources research in Ethiopia is not adequately addressed, although there is tremendous need for it. For sustainable water resources usage and exploitation, research is a vital tool. The basic necessities and preconditions are not set for water resources research to be effectively conducted for meaningful contribution in the sector. Among the necessary requirements are: institutional capacity, financial, human resources and facilities.
The financial resources for water resources research purposes in Ethiopia are usually obtained through either the Ethiopian Science and Technology Commission (ESTC) on the Ethiopian Government side or from non-governmental organisations (NGOs). The other sources, which might be available, are not directly accessible to researchers.
Human resources for the purpose of research is not adequately developed and organised. Those institutions like AWTI have no adequate manpower to cover all the teaching, training and research activities. There is always a tendency to provide research a last priority, thus, research suffers as a consequence.
Research facilities, needed for the purpose of applied research are not established in a given centre. Research facilities like physical modelling facilities, numerical modelling facilities etc. would be needed. Those institutions, established with relevance to water, have serious deficiency not only in faculties but also in facilities and infrastructure to competitively undertake research.
Thus, to undertake a meaningful research contributing towards a water resource development, the above major drawbacks need to be addressed. It is important to mention here that currently there is enough recognition for water resource sector in Ethiopia. For example, water is considered as a third important pillar for Agricultural Development Led Industrialisation (ADLI) of Ethiopia, next to labour and land. There are also many other useful policy statements relevant to research and development like that included in the Water Resources Management Policy and ESTC Priority Programmes.
While on the one hand Ethiopia is a water tower of Africa, it is also a drought affected and water scarce country. Water is indeed the most important resource that needs to be researched, developed and utilised for the well-being of Ethiopian people and to speed up the socio-economic development.
Water resource has positive and negative roles. Positively it can be used for drinking, irrigation, hydropower etc. Water can also negatively influence socio-economic development in the form of flood, erosion, sedimentation etc. To appropriately utilise water means to enhance the positive and minimise the negative roles of water. To utilise water in a sustainable manner it is necessary to understand the quantity and quality in space and time through studies and research as well as technological, financial and human resource potential.
In Ethiopia, since there is no established research endeavours contributing towards sustainable use of the water resources, it is high time to move ahead and give due emphasis for water resources research.
Although highly imbalanced by the teaching need, there is strong interest in AWTI to conduct research. There are some completed research projects mainly focused to the southern part of Ethiopia. These outcomes including other research outputs are disseminated through a yearly symposium ‘Sustainable water resources development in Ethiopia’. This symposium is now in its seventh cycle. Proceedings of the previous workshops can be obtained from AWTI.
ESTC and the German Development Cooperation (GTZ) mainly support the research activities conducted in AWTI. Almost all of the sponsorships are not with earmarked budget but with competitive application. Most of the research undertakings are also geared with research based human resource capacity building and research-oriented teaching in collaboration with partner universities abroad.
In order to look into the research activities in AWTI, the following few paragraphs show an example of group research activities undergoing with the support obtained from GTZ. The joint title of this group research can be described as ‘Abaya and Chamo basin water resources research’. The research has got a number of components (Figure 1).
Figure 1. Ongoing research projects (in rectangles) based on the initial concept and completed project entitled ‘Investigation of water resources aimed at multi-objective development with respect to limited data situation’.
The Abaya–Chamo lakes drainage system, physical characteristics, meteorological and hydrological data, water use information, potential information, interaction of nature and man etc. were not known or not put together in a systematic manner usable to any meaningful purposes such as development or research. Figure 1 shows the conclusion of the first investigation, and what has been identified as possible research areas. The completed research has produced a number of results Seleshi (2000).
Figure 2. The Abaya and Chamo lakes drainage region.
The region has been modelled using geographic information system (GIS) and hydrologic model. Subdivision of the drainage areas into sub-basins/watersheds enabled identification of gauged and ungauged sites and thereby derivation of detailed physical parameters, which can be used as an input to various hydrologic and hydraulic modelling. The basic development of the drainage area under GIS enabled easy addition of layers for updating and management of additional water resources data and analysed information. Using echo-sounder and Global Positioning System (GPS) both Abaya and Chamo lakes have been surveyed. Through transferring the data into digital form, various morphometric characteristics and water resources capacity curves of the lakes have been derived for the first time.
Using the collected and compiled data, spatial distributions of parameters such as rainfall and temperature elevation are developed. Homogenous regions based on rainfall have been identified. Evaluation of simplified relationship of rainfall and runoff provided inadequate basis for runoff estimation. A new conceptual, two-parameter, rainfall–evaporation–soil moisture–runoff–monthly water balance model is developed, calibrated and evaluated. The model is particularly useful for simulating runoff in cases of limited hydrometeorological and physical data and where climatic conditions lead to large rainfall variations. The results of both calibration and validation show the model performs quite well, and is employed to generate runoff for ungauged areas and extension of runoff data.
Various procedures and methodologies are derived or adopted to estimate parameters in assessment of demand and potential as well as design of water projects. These include estimation of expected runoff, its reliability and methods of its control; regional flood growth curves which can be used to estimate magnitude of flood for small structures in the region; expected water demands in drinking water supply and irrigation; and general identification of irrigation and hydropower sites. Through developing a general lake/reservoir water balance model, simulation of the lakes' water level and other time varying parameters (such as area and volume) are made possible. The model is used in assessment of various scenarios and impacts of various existing and future uses as well as sediment inflow conditions. Furthermore, based on the prevailing conditions suggestions are highlighted how to reverse the current deteriorating situations.
The adopted or developed underlying theories and obtained results could be applied to other areas. Due to the fact that data are limited, the results have characters of assessment. However, the results show clearly the sensitivity and vulnerability of the entire system. Developed results provide wide understanding of the water resources system, the availability of potentials, certain guidelines for execution of projects, how impacts can be evaluated, how urgently proper management system are needed and have to be developed. Furthermore, the results of this research have strongly indicated the need for further research and already founded basis for certain new research projects as schematised in Figure 1.
In looking forward, water resources research in Ethiopia, which enhances development of the country, should be given recognition. Sustainable development towards food and water security can only be achieved through proper control and utilisation of water resource whose technicality is supported through applied research, in combination with land, human and financial resources. As can be seen in Figure 3, the rivers of Ethiopia are having large flow volume throughout the year. In order to make use of water for development, water distribution should be evened out temporally.
Figure 3. Average monthly flow of some major Ethiopian rivers.
Sustainable and judicious development of the water resource of Ethiopia demand among a number of things, good scientific and technical capabilities, which help to curb a number of problems related to using the available water resources potential.
Water resources development that is not sustainable is ill planned. Fresh water resources are scarce and finite. Consequently, there are many ways to jeopardise the future use of water, either by over-exploitation or destroying resources. Besides physical aspects of sustainability there are social, financial and institutional aspects. Sustainability can be defined as: technical sustainability (balanced demand and supply), financial sustainability (cost recovery), social sustainability (stability of population, demand and willingness to pay), economic sustainability (sustaining economic development or welfare and production), institutional sustainability (capacity to plan, manage and operate the system) and environmental sustainability (no long-term negative or irreversible effects). Such aspects could be checked and controlled through study and research.
Although it is imbalanced and erratic in its spatial and temporal distribution, Ethiopia is blessed with ample amount of water resource that can be developed and utilised for the well-being of the nation and its society. It is however unfortunate that this resource is not yet exploited to the required level to secure the need for clean water, the demand for food, the needs to provide the energy supply to enhance industrial growth and protect the balance of deteriorating environment. In general the ability in Ethiopia to use and enhance the positive role of water and reducing the negative impacts has been very limited.
Today, the water sector has been given one of the top priorities by the government. The sector strategy has also identified goals to be achieved in near future to bring developments. The endeavours should, therefore, be supplemented through appropriate research, sustained through financial, manpower, and institutional and technical facilities.